[SEL] Sort of on-topic: The First Aircraft Engine

Gary Epps garyepps at fidnet.com
Mon Sep 5 17:36:52 PDT 2005


Hi Charlie,

I wish you'd said something about it in Feb, 2003.  If you did , I 
missed it.  That's an exceptional honor.  I knew you are good, but to 
have that many people say you're good...  That's pretty impressive.

Gary

Charles R Bryant wrote:
> Very interesting  topic. To add to it Charles Taylor is considered by the
> F.A.A to be
> the first Airframe and Engine mechanic and was issued Airframe and Engine
> certificate
> No.1. Each year the Department of Transportation  presents The Charles
> Taylor "Master Mechanic"
> Award to an aircraft mechanic who has a F.A.A.  A&P certificate (Airframe &
> PowerPoint),
> worked in aviation 50 years, recommended by the local F.A.A. office and
> prior companies he has worked for.
> This is the highest aircraft mechanics award in the nation. I was presented
> this award on Feb.19,2003
> while living in Missouri.
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Richard Allen" <linstrum55 at yahoo.com>
> To: "Stationary Engine List" <sel at lists.stationary-engine.com>
> Sent: Monday, September 05, 2005 5:58 AM
> Subject: [SEL] Sort of on-topic: The First Aircraft Engine
> 
> 
> 
>>For a diagram and an article about the very first aircraft engine, go
>>to:
>>
>>http://www.curtisswright.com/history/1901-1920.asp
>>
>>The first aircraft engine was pretty amazing for the time, but so were
>>the two brothers and their machinist friend who designed and built it.
>>The Wright Brothers and their bicycle shop machinist friend Charlie
>>Taylor built the engine in a fairly short amount of time. The Wrights
>>and Taylor had already built two engines before completing the third
>>engine that was used to power their first flight, though, so they did
>>have a bit of experience. The first engine had been built in 1901,
>>about eighteen months before their first attempt at making a multiple
>>cylinder aircraft engine. Their 1901 engine was a 4-stroke cycle single
>>cylinder that had a 6-inch bore and a 7-inch stroke. It was air-cooled
>>and on their Prony brake dynamometer it cranked out 3 horsepower at 447
>>rpm. They built it to run the lathe, drill press, and milling machine
>>in their bicycle manufacturing machine shop. Interestingly, it was
>>fueled with a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, otherwise known
>>as "producer gas" or "illuminating gas", a man-made utility fuel made
>>by reacting steam with coal in a gas works or "gas house". This was the
>>gas capable of killing a human or animal in a matter of minutes or even
>>seconds if someone stuck his/her head in a cooking oven with the gas
>>turned on. Since producer gas was tantamount to using deadly hydrogen
>>cyanide gas as a household fuel, its use was discontinued around 85 or
>>90 years ago. Even though it hasn't been around for a long time,
>>putting one's head in the oven with the gas turned on is still
>>considered to be a way to commit suicide, but nowadays it is only a
>>myth since methane or propane are not toxic and are only lethal when
>>inhaled in concentrations high enough to displace air, which causes
>>simple asphyxiation from lack of oxygen. One feature of producer gas is
>>that its octane or anti-knock rating is well over 100 and its use
>>avoided pre-ignition knock, a problem that plagued their aircraft
>>engines because of the poor quality 60-octane equivalent petroleum
>>distillate fuels available in 1903. The Wright's first four cylinder
>>engine intended to power their aircraft had a "square" bore and stroke
>>of 4 inches, giving it a c.i.d. of 201 cubic inches. It delivered 12
>>horsepower at 1000 rpm. During testing in their Dayton, Ohio, bicycle
>>shop, it seized when they adjusted the fuel mixture to be very rich to
>>keep the exhaust valves cooler and in the process washed all the
>>lubrication from the cylinder walls. Better for it to have seized in
>>the Ohio shop where they built it instead of far off Kitty Hawk.
>>Unfortunately it destroyed the aluminum block and they had to have
>>another cast. Their second aircraft engine suffered a somewhat similar
>>fate. Once installed in their aircraft it only ran the one single day
>>of December 17, 1903 when they flew, and was destroyed when the wind
>>blew the parked airplane over, smashing the heavy engine onto the
>>ground and cracking its block. Altogether, the Wrights built around 200
>>engines of their first design, slowly improving the parts for
>>reliability and increasing the performance to 16 horsepower.
>>
>>
>>Rich
>>
>>~:/+\:~:/+\:~:/+\:~:/+\:~:/+\:~:/+\:~:/+\:~:/+\:~:/+\:~:/+\:
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>>
>>
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> 
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-- 
In the Ozark Mountains of South Central USA where both life and I move 
at a leisurely pace.




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